Happy Birthday Jesus!

The best thing about Christmas Day is that you’re allowed to drink alcohol at 9:30 in the morning; it’s the one day of the year when it’s actually socially acceptable to behave like Oliver Reed. And I live that.

I got some good presents this year – a history book by Henry Mayhew called London Labour & The London Poor, a DVD called Video Nasties: The Definitive Guide, and The Russian Criminal Tattoo Encyclopaedia: Volume III. These all came from my mum – and they may sound like odd presents – but it’s great gifts like these that have made me in to the sensible, well-adjusted role model I am today.

Videos Nasties have appealed to me since I was a teenager – I liked the lurid box covers you used to see in video shops, with titles such as Cannibal Terror, Don’t Look in The Basement and I spit on Your Grave. In fact, along with the trailers, the box art and crude titles are better than the actual films themselves.

Russian criminal tattoos have also been a big influence in my life, and are part of the reason I’m scared to set foot in Russia in case I’m murdered.